note: I’m trying the new WordPress Gallery tool and you can click on any image for a larger view. If this process becomes too cumbersome I’ll switch back to inserting individual images so you won’t need to click on each thumbnail to see more detail.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the pics and be sure to stay tuned for the next batch of Aminals!

Disclaimer: One of the unfortunate things about the email forwards these images come from is they often contain no reference to the original photo- where it came from, who to credit, who the animals/owners are, etc. Credit is given if possible. If you see ANY photo here and know it’s origin or who should receive proper credit – please contact me and I’ll update asap.

Here is a great set of pics received via email from me mum. Anyone that’s ever tried to give a kitty a bath will surely sympathize and find amusement in the expressions captured in the images below. I’m trying the new WordPress Gallery tool and you can click on any image for a larger view. If this process becomes too cumbersome I’ll switch back to inserting individual images so you won’t need to click on each thumbnail to see more detail. Anyway – Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the pics and be sure to stay tuned for the next batch of Aminals!

Disclaimer: One of the unfortunate things about the email forwards these images come from is they often contain no reference to the original photo- where it came from, who to credit, who the animals/owners are, etc. Credit is given if possible. If you see ANY photo here and know it’s origin or who should receive proper credit – please contact me and I’ll update asap.

Disclaimer: One of the unfortunate things about the email forwards these images come from is they often contain no reference to the original photo- where it came from, who to credit, who the animals/owners are, etc. Credit is given if possible. If you see ANY photo here and know it’s origin or who should receive proper credit – please contact me and I’ll update asap.

Twitter asks its users: “What are you doing?” and puts a 140 character limit to your answers. Those “tweets” get sent to everyone who subscribed to your Twitter account, either by the Twitter website, via email or over SMS sent to their mobile phone.

You can also mark tweets that are meant for a certain person by starting them with “@username” (an at sign followed by their Twitter name). If you’d like to send them a non-public message, start it with “d username”.

In a way, Twitter is the virtual equivalent to your pub at the corner. You periodically spend some time there and, over time, start conversations and learn to know the other regulars. Sometimes, you even engage in a deeper discussion, but most of the time it’s just smalltalk. Nonetheless, you learn about what people are doing, what happens in the community or in the lives of your friends.

Twitter does the same for you, but you are able to choose the people whose messages you get. It’s your decision who you’d like to “follow”, as Twitter puts it. By posting what you’re doing or thinking, you let people participate in a little bit of your life. Over time, your followers will recognize things they share with you, be it that you are a Mac user or going to be a parent. You can direct people to interesting websites, maybe your own. Pose a question and often you’ll get responses from your followers in a matter of minutes.

Another source of great info on using Twitter was found via McGee’s Musings, and includes an embedded video introduction to the service. Video: Twitter in Plain English is worth the watch if you want to learn more about what the creators refer to as “micro-blogging service Twitter“.

Click here to access McGee’s post and watch the embedded video from Lee and Sachi LeFever.

Now, before you ask, no – I’m not yet a member. I blog too much and between that and the real world I don’t think I’d have the time to manage another network. The service does sound interetsting though and I can see the appeal. I wonder how long I can hold out before I drink the kool aid??

Webapp PDFMeNot bypasses the need to wrangle with a separate PDF reader application—instead, it opens PDFs right inside your browser. Billed as “a nicer way of linking to PDFs,” plug in the URL of a PDF and PDFMeNot will webify the document and make it viewable in-browser, as well as offer embed code to include the PDF into any web page. To see it in action, check out the Quicksilver manual PDF as rendered by PDFMeNot. After the jump, check out the embedded version.

The second tool was referred by the good folks at Box.net. Their tool allows you to view and share PDFs and documents online as well as collaborate:

thought you might be like to know that Box.net just integrated Scribd’s iPaper technology onto our site so that all PDF, word, excel and power point documents are instantly viewable online. Now a user can upload a PDF to Box.net, and share files without that person having to deal with long load times or missing software.

Send files to anyone
Send files of any type — large documents, photos, videos, zip files — to friends, contacts and clients. Forget the hassle of sending email attachments — with Box, you just send them a link to the file. It’s web file sharing at its easiest.

Keep a safe copyYour data is valuable, and there’s nothing safer than keeping an extra copy of important files in online storage. Box is an online backup solution that makes it easy to have that peace of mind.

Email uploadingUpload files to your Box online storage by sending an email to upload@box.net. The next time you receive an attachment you’d like to save or work on later, forward it to us and it will be saved to your account.

Publishing with BoxIf you have a website or eBay auctions, you can host your photos and other files on Box. There are no bandwidth limits on web file sharing. You simply upload a file, right-click on it, and get a link. The file is instantly hosted.

Upload files to one place for use anywhereBox users can now utilize third-party applications with their files stored online, which means you will only need to upload files to the web once. Upload an image to your Box account and be able to edit it online with Picnik, send it to a friend on Facebook, add a link to it on Twitter, and turn it into a custom t-shirt on Zazzle — all from a single file upload.

File consistencyMaintain a single set of files online no matter what you do with them. Collaborating with others through Box and your online network is now even easier as you can seamlessly move files from one application to another. Collaborate with others through Box, edit documents online with Zoho, and get them signed with the EchoSign OpenBox application. No duplicate files are required.

Share files anywhere with the Box Widget!Web file sharing is easy when you add the Box widget to your website, blog, or MySpace profile. The Box widget lets you share files by publishing your photos, documents, audio, or video in a user-friendly form. You can even upload additional content at any time directly from the widget, without having to visit Box! The Box widget is perfect for personal media, project collaboration, large-scale file distribution, and more.

Mobile Access: m.box.net

Box.net gives you access anywhere to your documents, photos, and files from any mobile device with a web browser. Box.net’s mobile website m.box.net is easy to use and does not require any mobile software. Every file from your Box.net account will be available through your mobile browser, allowing you to instantly share files, view documents, and browse photos when you are on the go and.

Disclaimer: One of the unfortunate things about the email forwards these images come from is they often contain no reference to the original photo- where it came from, who to credit, who the animals/owners are, etc. Credit is given if possible. If you see ANY photo here and know it’s origin or who should receive proper credit – please contact me and I’ll update asap.

Though I can be a fast typer I’m always looking for ways to improve my typing speed and quality. I came across a post on improving your typing skills and thought I’d share: Improve Your Typing Skills With TypeSpeed.

Webapp TypeSpeed makes it easy to learn and improve upon your typing skills with a series of touch-typing exercises and tests. The free site (an email address is required for registration) stores your progress and shows you where improvement can be made. The only downside: if you’re used to hitting the spacebar twice after each sentence in test mode, your results won’t be recorded properly, even if you’re typing the exact words. While the website is not the most visually appealing, TypeSpeed gets the job done of improving your typing skills and looks safe for some downtime at work. For other typing tools, see previously mentioned Windows download RapidTyping and touch typing webapp KeyBR.

To learn more about TypeSpeed and try it out, go here: http://www.mytypespeed.com/. You’ll need to register if you want to try all 40 texts they have for typing tests but you can try their basic test without registering. Also, here’s some info from their website:

TypeSpeed is the fastest way to reach your full typing potential. You can use the ‘exercises’ to learn how to type, or review the most efficient typing techniques available. If you ever want to know what your typing speed is, you can take the typing test, which will tell you how well you type.

If you teach a typing course/class, you can use TypeSpeed as a teaching aid to help your students learn how to type faster. As they advance through the exercises, you’ll be relieved to know that when you want to test them, you can choose the difficulty of the texts they have to type.

The comments section referenced a tool called Fingerjig for a “typing game”. Here’s a clip from the website:

Fingerjig is a 6 minute game that tests your typing ability. Words are randomly chosen from a dictionary of over 70,000. You must try to type the words as quickly and accurately as you can!

You can learn more here: http://www.jonmiles.co.uk/fingerjig.php. Note that if you scroll below the “start” section you’ll find a set of typing tips to help you get the most out of your typing sessions.